Tag: motors

Most motors are designed to set amount of work, usually rated in either watts or horsepower, which is  746 watts per HP. Watts law states that Watts = Volts x Amps. If a particular motor needs to do 1 horsepower of work at 120 Volts it will draw about 6.22 amps. And yes in an […]

Brake horsepower (BHP), motor nameplate HP, and the actual electrical power (watts) a motor will consume are different but related concepts. They can get confusing, so we will tackle them one at a time. Let us start with simple definitions of work, power, and horsepower. Work = distance in feet x force in pounds, both […]

In residential and light commercial HVAC, we work primarily with PSC (permanent split capacitor) motors. However, it is good to be aware of some other types. PSC (Permanent Split Capacitor) A common medium torque single phase motor with a run capacitor always in the circuit. This type makes up the majority of HVAC motors (condenser […]

How does a typical motor know how fast to run? Typical induction motors are slaves of the electrical cycle rate of the entering power (measured in hertz). Our power in the US makes one complete rotation from positive electrical peak to negative peak 60 times per second or 60hz (50hz in many other countries). That […]